Batman, Brucie or Bruce… a reflection on the identity of Bruce Wayne.
Written by me, Translated by @helloarska (check her profile!). Idea from both of us. Yay!!!!
Many people think that, ironically, Bruce Wayne is a mask, and Batman, the masked superhero, is the real version of him. Bruce himself indirectly confirms this in the Batman Beyond series. This is an interesting and understandable interpretation, although it also feels a bit cliché and simple, which in a way truncates his complex character.
(This rather short study involves two teenage girls in high school, so it is clearly not accurate to actual psychology or anything like that. It was done purely for fun, and many details have been overlooked.)
Together, we would like to argue that both Bruce (or in this context, rather Brucie, the millionaire playboy, the good-natured fool) AND Batman are masks built to protect a more sensitive psyche and personality. In this text, we will discuss—perhaps with double standards—another cliché related to the character of Batman. We will use and apply Sigmund Freud's psyche model of the id, superego, and ego, applying it to Bruce's development and different identities.
Batman is Bruce's superego. The superego is an image of the ideal self internalized from upbringing. It functions according to the moral principle and therefore, in a way, as the voice of conscience, controlling the instinctive self. Batman is what Bruce wants to be. What Bruce thinks people need. What he thinks the world needs. In other words, the ideal person. The version of himself that he likes the most and that he values. It defines his true moral concepts and worldview. It is, in a way, the best version of him.
Brucie is Bruce's Id. The id is the part of one’s self that operates according to the body’s needs and seeks to fulfill desires and impulses. For example, a small baby's behavior is all about satisfying instincts and immediate desires. As they grow up, through experience and education, they learn to control them. Brucie is irresponsible, foolish, and completely driven by his impulses. He behaves ignorantly. On the other hand, he is benevolent. He seems to lack the superego's control over the situation completely.
Bruce, on the other hand, represents the ego. It is the part that operates between the two—the self—which, according to the reality principle, has to mediate between impulses that lead in different directions. It is, in a way, the real version of you. But who exactly is Bruce? Not Batman, not Brucie, but something in between.
Usually, the ego is the most pronounced and developed of all three factors of the psyche. It largely controls behavior and personality. However, Bruce’s most prominent psyche agents are the id and the superego. This goes back to Bruce's childhood. We all feel and experience a deep love-hate relationship with the interpretation that Bruce is really still just a child, crying for his parents in that alley with blood on his face, his hand holding his mother's body as it cools. That is Bruce's ego, the part that has been slowly developing since early childhood, gradually beginning to control the id.
We know that Bruce began training to be Batman at a very young age and continued it throughout his youth with extreme self-discipline. He almost completely suppressed his ego and id during those years, developing his superego to protect the wounded little boy inside him—to protect his ego.
When he returned to Gotham, he developed a public identity to cover up Batman. It tipped the scales in the completely opposite direction—the Brucie identity emphasizes the id very strongly. He strengthened and developed his Bruce identity on that side. It is meant to be the opposite of the controlling Batman, in a way, to confuse people. So it also lacks the control of the superego. That, too, is developed to protect Bruce's real and vulnerable ego—that little kid in the alley.
So in the end, we can say that Bruce's real “me” is not really Batman or Brucie, but something that falls between them, buried under the protective shells of those formed identities: a little boy whose real identity, the ego, was not able to form and develop properly due to trauma.
This art is made by @imsorrybruce on Tumblr.
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